Here’s the worst new way inequality is showing up in America

We’ve known for a long time that rich people can generally expect to live longer than poor people.

But a new report from the New York Times paints a much starker picture: Not only is there a longevity gap between rich and poor, but the gap is rapidly growing.

Even more so than income, a person’s lifespan is the most basic indicator of well-being, and poor people are losing ground. According to the Times, a 60-year-old in the upper 50 percent of incomes in 1970 could expect to live 1.2 years longer than a 60-yea-old born in the bottom half. By 2001, 60-year-old men in the top half were living 5.8 years longer.

That disparity marks a stark inequality that echoes the growing income gap central to this year’s presidential campaign. Fixing it, the Times suggests, will take much more than formulating new medications or fixing America’s health care system. The problems go much deeper:

At the heart of the disparity, said Elizabeth H. Bradley, a professor of public health at Yale, are economic and social inequities, “and those are things that high-tech medicine cannot fix.”

Here are a few of the most puzzling quandaries the article raises about the disparity in life spans between the rich and poor:

Be sure to read the story in full to get a better sense for the scope of the problem.